Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-06-04
FALSE NOTIONS OF GOVERNMENT

Professor Lester +. Ward. writing in
the Forum for June, states a vital truth
when he says that the irrational distrust
of government not only makes it worse
than it otherwise would be, but tends
TO give ii the character it is accused
of possessing. The old idea was that govern
ment was essentially hostile to the people,
and fastened upon them by fate. But the
modern idea surviving this erroneous one
Is, that it is g a necessary evil No mat
ter how representative, says the essayist,
it may be, it is still looked upon, to a great
extent, as an arbitrary formality, with
great power and evil intent, requiring the
exercise of eternal vigilance to prevent it
from destroying all liberty.
While this conclusion is true as the es-
sayists insists, it is true with limitations.
Where such an idea obtains in America, we
think inquiry will develop it to be the
remnant of foreign heredity of opinion, or
direct manifestation by foreigners, who
have not risen to true conception of free
and uninterfering government The
American who has studied the principles
of his government cannot be led into any
such erroneous lines of thought He
knows that the government is his, and the
result of his action and his civilization :;
that he is one of many holding it in the
hollow of the hand so far as personality is at
all concerned. But the foreigner coming
TO the United States from a
country where there is governing
and governed class, finds it very difficult
to disassociate the idea OF his early ex-
periencc from the new conditions in which
he finds himself. The rule of the ma
jority, the peaceable revolution in govern
ment every few months by simply ascer-
tanning the desire of the majority of the
people, is 10 him, for a considerable period.
so strange and involved, that he cannot
realize the full Importance and meaning of
government of the people, by the people,
and for the people only. Upon the more
radical and ignorant OF this class the
Socialists and Communists fasten, and find
them apt pupils for the acceptance of the
doctrine that all government is tyranny,
snd all subsection is sertdom.
So it is that the Communistic aud Social
istic ranks in America are chiefly
filled with men and women who have
wholly failed TO rise to level with the
truth concerning the principles of free
government, because they have not and
will not shed their coats of prejudice
against all authority. Scarcely one in a
hundred of this class, adhering to the vici-
Gus doctrine that government is tyranny.
and order the synonym for repression of
huasan rights, is American born.
Professor Ward, to return to the essay,
reasons with these people, and points out
that their ideas OF government here are
wrong and dangerous, because everything
must be done according to law, and there
is scarcely any discretionary power lodged
any longer in officials that the people
make the laws, and the officers have moth
ing else TO do but execute them. lie adds:
In fact, throughout the entire system of
modern representative government,
the limitations that exist to the
violation of law, the perpetuation
of fraud, or the abuse of power, are so
great and so effective, that it is only at
rare intervals that such things are prac-
ticed or attempted The impression pre-
walls to the contrary; but whoever ex-
amipes into the matter statistically and
coolly, must conclude that the idea is
erroneous. Mr.. Ward says: at has been
shown over and again that losses through
dishonesty are very much less in public
than in private financial transactions, and
scarcely case can be named in which an
officer has undertaken any high-handed
proceedings In excess of his prescribed
duties
Such recalls to reason are timely. They
serve to check men, somewhat, in indul-
gence in the popular can't that most Of
ficials abuse their trusts, and that govern
ment in this day is little less than sys-
TEN Of "stealp and small tyranny. based
upon deprivation of the people of political
I'D social rights. PROFESSIONALLY venality
too much prevails, and it does to con-
siderable degree faint official ranks; but